In the latest issue of Radio World and on our website, you’ll read about quite a few interesting sessions and presentations in and around this year’s NAB Show.

We’ve provided samplings from the Broadcast Engineering & IT Conference, the Society of Broadcast Engineers Ennes Workshop and the Public Radio Engineering Conference. In our stories we’ve tried not just to preview the talks but asked our sources to share some of their insights with us. I hope you’ll find these articles useful.

I’d also like to invite you to two events at which I’ll be speaking.

First, Nautel will reprise its popular Radio Technology Forum — still often referred to as “the NUG” but by no means limited to Nautel users — on Sunday morning April 19. 

Conveniently, the forum this year will be held in the main ballroom at the Westgate, which is right next door to the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Nautel does a super job with the event — and I say this not only because they have the good taste to invite me to speak! The forum consistently pulls in 300 or more engineers and other broadcasters who gather to learn about new technologies from around the industry, from Nautel as well as other technology sources. 

The doors open at 8 a.m. Here’s an insider tip: The first half-hour is a great time to grab some of Nautel’s hot coffee and mingle with an engineering “Who’s Who” of radio until presentations start at 8:30, so arrive early.

I then help kick things off with a short discussion about “What I’m Watching for at NAB.” Other speakers this year include Joe D’Angelo of Xperi; Steve Newberry of Quu; Deborah Parenti, president of Radio Ink; Keith Barton, VP/GM of Max Media; Dr. Andy Gladding of Hofstra University; Geary Morrill of Connoisseur Media, who chairs the SBE Education Committee; and Kory Hartman, COO of Civic Media. And Jeff Welton with his famous “tips and tricks.”

A complimentary hot lunch is available for attendees. In fact the whole thing is free, which is a nice kind of price. Your attendance even qualifies for a half-credit towards SBE recertification in Category H. But advance signup is required.

And later on Sunday, please join me on the stage of the TV and Radio HQ Theater on the Central Hall exhibit floor.

I’m going to salute Andy Gladding, this year’s recipient of Radio World’s Excellence in Engineering Award; and then Andy and I will be joined by Bud Williamson for a conversation called “Radio — the New Boutique Business?”

[Related: “Andy Gladding Champions Radio’s Future”]

We’ll explore the idea that owning a radio station is a great fit for Gen-X and Millennial professionals.

“People my age are looking for an opportunity to do something outstanding in their communities,” Andy told me recently. 

“They’re investing in traditional small business, they’re buying farms, opening retail establishments and generally looking for an opportunity to succeed while having the power to have an impact at the community level and create lasting interpersonal business relationships.”

He believes that for media professionals who are competent with and trained in radio workflows and understand how to market local business, “radio can be a perfect for personal satisfaction and growth.”

Andy is an engineer with Salem Media Network and an educator at Hofstra University. He and his wife Katie recently acquired WKZE(FM) in Red Hook, N.Y. His friend and colleague Bud Williamson is also an engineer and station owner.

You can stop in while you’re browsing the booths of the Central Hall. Our talk is 3 p.m. Sunday at C2450, the TV and Radio HQ Theater.

[For more coverage of the convention see our NAB Show page.]

The post Catch Up With Me at NAB appeared first on Radio World.

An important source for rebuilt power tubes is going away.

Microwave Power Products plans to close operations at the former Econco facility in California, ending its program for rebuilding the tubes used in vacuum tube-type transmitters, as our Nick Langan reported last month.

MPP said operations at the Woodland manufacturing site will cease on Sept. 1 as it consolidates operations to Palo Alto. As part of the transition, the company will discontinue repair services for Econco Power Grid tubes, though it will continue to manufacture new tubes. 

The move also ends Econco’s “bank” program, which allowed customers to store non-working power grid tubes at the Woodland facility to be rebuilt and made available for future purchase.

The deadline to purchase repaired Econco Power Grid tubes is May 12 at close of business. According to the release, failure to confirm a purchase or request the return of non-working tubes by that date will be treated as consent for MPP to dispose of property remaining in the Bank program.

According to a timeline on MPP’s website, Econco was founded in 1968 and held the first contracts awarded by the U.S. government and the U.S. Navy to remanufacture microwave devices, twice receiving the Navy’s Award for Excellence.

Communications & Power Industries acquired Econco in 2004. In June 2024, Microwave Power Products Inc. and the CPI Electron Device Business spun off from CPI to become an independent entity.

As Nick wrote in his story, the development is significant for stations using transmitters that require tubes such as the EIMAC 4CX20000E.

“Several readers have expressed concern regarding the dwindling number of companies offering rebuilt power tubes, which provide a cost-effective alternative to purchasing new tubes, or a solid-state transmitter,” he wrote.

Massachusetts-based Kennetron advertises vacuum tube rebuilds. And some readers have inquired about options on Alibaba, including those from Chinese manufacturer Jingguang, though some expressed concerns about sourcing from China including reliability and import tariffs.

Dave Morgan is the director of engineering at Sinclair Telecable in the Hampton Roads region of southeast Virginia. Among his properties are two AM sites using tube-type transmitters and a Gates/Harris FM model (which our own John Bisset sold him some 27 years ago).

“These are excellent transmitters when properly operated, maintained and understood,” Morgan told us.

The Econco closure, Morgan said, was a major development.

Vacuum power tube technology is proven and still somewhat reliable, he said, though less efficient than solid-state. He has observed over the years that Gates/Harris, Collins/Continental and Broadcast Electronics built their tube transmitters to last.

Morgan acknowledged that some engineers have reported quality control or lifespan issues from rebuilders in recent years.

“I understand that the power tube rebuilders and manufacturers might be having a harder time nowadays sourcing elements like tungsten and thorium,” he said.

But Morgan’s Sinclair properties — no relation to the large Sinclair Broadcast Group — have had no significant problems with rebuilt tubes over the decades.

His stations follow the rebuilder’s break-in procedures to the letter, paying close attention to filament voltages, aiming for proper tuning, monitoring stack temperatures and keeping the ambient air inside the transmitter buildings clean, cool and dry.

“Like everything else after 2020, the costs for tube rebuilding shot up,” Morgan told Nick. As a result, the cost for brand-new tubes followed suit.

Links to Nick’s stories are below:

“MPP Announces Closure of Former Econco Facility”

“Radio Operators React to Econco Closure”

The post One Less Option appeared first on Radio World.

It has been said that we can tell a lot about people by the company they keep; but maybe we should look instead at what they keep on their desks. 

What’s on yours?

This thought was prompted by a little piece of Lucite that I have at hand. I received this paperweight from a reader very early in my time with Radio World and have treasured it.

Embedded in the plastic is a steel disk with rusted aviation orange paint around its perimeter. There’s an image of a tower also embedded, and the legend: “KDKA Radio AM 1020, World’s First Commercial Radio Tower, 1920–1995” and at the bottom “Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.”

According to a 1996 post on Antique Radio Classified this tower originally stood in Saxonburg, Pa., and was moved in 1939 to Allison Park. The 718-foot structure was felled in 1994. Small slices of a tower leg were placed in Lucite and sold for $20 to benefit the hospital. 

Nothing says “radio” (or “Pittsburgh” for that matter) like KDKA. I hope they raised a lot.

You can see more images of these paperweights if you Google around. Maybe you even have one. I feel that this little token helps connect me to the roots of our medium.

Another keepsake is a leather belt buckle with the call letters WHN on it. 

When I was a teenager listening to country music in the New York City area, I called in and won a belt buckle and actually got on the air (come to think of it, this was my first time on the radio anywhere).

I lost my buckle when a girlfriend and I split, and I’d given up on it until I mentioned it here in an editor’s column more than two decades later.

Jim Nedelka, formerly of WHN, blew me away by sending me another WHN belt buckle from his personal keeping, an early example of how generous Radio World readers can be. And in this case the memento is a much more personal connection to my own radio history.

Do you have something connected to radio that is nifty, historic or meaningful on your desk or in your office? (Steve Shultis of New York Public Radio keeps a section of the Alford FM antenna from the Empire State Building in his office. Radio geeks unite!)

Email me with a picture to radioworld@futurenet.com. 

The post What’s on Your Desk? appeared first on Radio World.

We’re big believers in the power of college radio here at Radio World, so it’s cool to share a promotion being run right now by Telos Alliance.

The manufacturer is partnering with the non-profit College Radio Foundation to give away a flagship Omnia.11 FM+HD audio processor to a U.S. college station. That’s a prize with a retail price of about ten grand.

“The contest is easy to enter,” Telos says in its announcement.

“Students, faculty and staff at college radio stations in the USA can submit their entry online; all that’s needed is a quick paragraph explaining why their college station needs a new Omnia.11.”

Entries will be open through April 10 at the company website. The winning entry will be chosen by the College Radio Foundation, led by Rob Quicke, whose work on behalf of college radio, including the annual College Radio Day, is familiar to Radio World readers.

Telos Audio Production Senior Director of Sales Jim Armstrong was quoted saying, “College radio has always held a special place in our hearts because so many of us got our start in the industry at a college station. We’ve got former on-air personalities, chief engineers and radio station staff at every level of our company who credit college radio with igniting their love for the medium.”

That’s certainly true of me as well. I still remember walking into WXDR at the University of Delaware for the first time. The experiences of those first few years have shaped my lifetime. And my Radio World colleague Nick Langan works as a faculty advisor for 89.1 WXVU(FM) in Philadelphia.

But all of us also have read news stories about this or that school deciding it no longer needs a radio station, overlooking the power and appeal that working in media still hold over young people.

So I’m all in with anything that gives a college station a boost up.

The link again is www.telosalliance.com/collegeradio

[Related: “College FM Licenses Matter”]

The post Telos, College Foundation Will Give Away an Omnia.11 appeared first on Radio World.